Beginning & Ending

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I was asked, “How did you finish your manuscript? Did you know how it was going to start and end?”

For the first question I literally parked myself on the couch and wrote. One thing that always helps to drown out all the distractions is to listen to movie soundtracks and caffeine.

As for the second question I definitely knew the beginning and the ending. I didn’t know all the stuff in between the beginning and end but I knew two scenes in the story.

One thing with writing is everyone writes in their own way. What works for me may not work for you. But you can try it if you want.

Okay so this is what you can try, listen to music that goes along with the story you’re writing.

This is only to transport you from wherever you’re at and keep you focused on the task at hand. Now that you’re in the zone make a commitment and stick with it. Word counts are awesome things to stick to.

Write you beginning and your ending scenes. Then open another document and make a list of some key things you want to happen. They don’t have to be in order.

Pick one key thing and write about it. Let the drama unfold, it’s fun. As you write don’t look at your word count just focus on the twist and turns in your story. The fun thing with knowing your beginning and ending is you can write anything in the middle.

For example my story starts out with all sorts of questions and secrets about__________.

Then the story ends with the extinction of ___________. And __________ falling into ____________.

Sorry for the blanks, I can’t really tell you what happened in the story just yet.

As you finish writing your middle scenes start tying them together. Think of your story like a homemade rope. In order to make it strong and long-lasting you need to start twisting the beginning of the story together. Then you slowly make  your way to the end of the rope twisting it around and around until you reach your ending. You never move backwards always forward.

One more thing never focus on what you wrote in the beginning and ending until your finished writing the whole thing. If you go back and read the first scene and last scene you’ll probably rewrite those scenes over and over again. Trust me it happens.